Interview with Katie Wright, fired from The Apprentice 2012

Interview with Katie Wright, fired from The Apprentice 2012In The Apprentice's gourmet street food task, Lord Sugar's patience finally ran out and he fired Katie Wright. We spoke to the fired candidate.Lorna Coopereditor, MSN TV2012-04-25T22:04:02Katie WrightInterview with Katie WrightMSN had a chat with The Apprentice 2012's Katie about meatballs, Jane McEvoy and Adam Corbally.What was your highlight and lowlight on The Apprentice?My lowlight was definitely the boardroom in week one. I think that was probably the most terrifying experience of my life; I think you saw me praying, begging and sweating. My highlight was The Groove Train, actually. I came up with the idea, and it was a risk, but we had great fun. It paid off and we won.Was your Apprentice experience everything you thought it would be?It's more stressful and intense than I ever thought it would be. But in terms of the positive side, it's everything and more; I wasn't expecting to like any of the other candidates, but I was expecting it to be an endurance test, which it was in a good way and in a bad way.Sum up how you think you were managed by Adam Corbally.I don't think I was managed, to be honest. I think the team was really led by Stephen Brady. Adam made some massive mistakes and on this task alone, he probably should've been fired. But because Lord Sugar was sick and tired of seeing my face, I ended up in the firing line.What did you think of your fellow contestants?The only person who is probably off my Christmas card list is Jane McEvoy. She's no longer in the process, but I found her to be quite cold; I didn't think she was a very nice person. As for everybody else - whether I've had tiffs with them in the Apprentice or not, whether they've stabbed me in the back or not - they're still good people. It's a stressful situation and I'd like to keep in touch with them.Do you think you were fairly edited?I think so. When it comes to editing, you can be positively edited as well as negatively. I believe I came across professionally; the only issue for me is that sometimes my professionalism made me look laid back. It may have seemed that I didn't care, but that's not true at all.A lot of people in The Apprentice run their own shop or restaurant or market stall, and they're not used to the more stressful boardroom situations, but I work in politics so I'm used to it. It was more that I handled it well, not that I didn't care, but that's not down to the edit - it's how I come across.Looking back, what would you have done differently on this task if you were project manager?I fought for two things based on the research we did; I wanted to make less units because we were told that around 120 units would be the right amount to sell, and I think that's about what we did sell. I also pitched for a dessert because one of the problems with selling food is that if people aren't hungry, you can't persuade them to have another main meal, but we're all guilty of being in a restaurant and squeezing down that dessert.So for sure, I would've gone for a dessert, and I think that would've made the difference between winning and losing.Did you try any of the 'Utterly Delicious Meatballs'?I did try one, but not until the task was over. There just wasn't time - we were running around trying to sell them and I didn't want to be seen by the stall eating. That would've been a suicidal move on my part. But they were OK - nothing gourmet about them, that's for sure. I think Lord Sugar compared them to elephant dung, but I think the sizes were too small for that comparison. Adam's meatballs are small!Lord Sugar wasn't convinced about your qualities, he preferred to keep Adam. How surprised are you about that?I feel the 16 candidates that get picked for The Apprentice should be at equal standing. I think Lord Sugar's quite quick to forgive people for their mistakes if it's something that's not a strength of theirs; if someone's a bad seller, but they sell a little bit, then that's OK. If someone's not a great presenter, but they try, then that's OK. I don't necessarily agree with that because I think we should all be of equal standing and the strongest candidate should get through. I don't think Adam's a stronger candidate than me, but he got forgiven because Lord Sugar could see that he was a hard worker. A lot of people on The Apprentice end up using the term, "I'm a grafter" and I don't have a lot of respect for that; we all work hard on The Apprentice. You get up at 4am, you go to bed at midnight. You need more than being "a hard worker" to be able to offer something really substantial to Lord Sugar.Team Phoenix, including Katie Wright, Adam Corbally and Azhar SiddiqueWho's your tip to win?I would really like Gabrielle Omar to win. She is intelligent, she's creative, she's nice as well. I can imagine Lord Sugar being happy to work with her. The only thing that Gabrielle's got to work through is that she can be a bit fluffy at times, but if she manages to work that all out, she'll be absolutely fine. For me, Gabrielle to win.What would you have done with Lord Sugar if you'd won?My business plans will remain secret for now.What's next for you? I'm going back to my day job in politics. Obviously, I'm interested in doing some media work as long as it's relevant to my day job. I'd much rather be on Question Time, This Week, The Wright Stuff and other current affairs shows, than be in any sort of mass media celebrity world. It's back to normality for me. Episode six: recapThe Apprentice 2012This week, Lord Sugar challenged the teams to come up with some gourmet street food and sell it in Edinburgh. He warned them that he didn't "want any junk served up" for the task.But team Phoenix project manager Adam Corbally ignored that advice and immediately set about cutting costs, telling his team: "It's just about profit, isn't it? It's not about taste."Over on team Sterling, Jenna Whittingham, headed in the other direction. She decided to sell gourmet Scottish meals, including a hearty stew.Adam's team felt the pressure and, after attempting to sell their pasta and meatballs to a football crowd, jumped on board a bus tour to try and drum up trade, with 26-year-old Katie Wright dressed up as a slice of pizza.Team Sterling moved their pitch to try and find customers, and both ended up cutting prices. In the boardroom, it was revealed that Phoenix spent £90.25 on ingredients, and had total sales of £388.29, resulting in a profit of £298.04.Sterling spent £268.82 on ingredients and had total sales of £588.60, resulting in a profit of £319.78. Adam took Azhar Siddique and Katie Wright into the boardroom, but despite admonishing the pair, Lord Sugar decided to fire Katie Wright.